At least in its first incarnation, ESP-Disk was a strange record label, very much a product of the 1960s. Founder Bernard Stollmann put musicians ahead of commercial viability at at time when jazz and rock were exploding, imprinting the motto "The artists alone decide what you will hear" CK on all his releases. He seemed to believe, as so many did at the time, that music would be a revolutionary force. He even backed Esperanto as a global language, using it on the covers of some of his releases.

The HAR-YOU Percussion Group is certainly not on the level of most of the musicians the label recorded, but their 1967 Sounds of the Ghetto Youth, perhaps more than anything else in the ESP catalog, represents that wide-eyed philosophy. The 14 members of the band, all between 16 and 19 years old at the time of the recording, were all part of a government-funded program called "Harlem Youth Opportunities, Unlimited." Under the direction of Roger "Montego Joe" Sanders they became a respectable band, melding Latin jazz with touches of the era's prevalent "New Thing" sound and epitomizing the sort of self-empowerment that was behind the Black Panthers and the school lunch program. With the notable sax playing of Nelson Sanamiago and a six-piece percussion section, the playing is certainly warm and heartfelt. And if the eight tracks here aren't at the level of Archie Shepp or Mongo Santamaria, countless lesser Latin jazz albums have been released since. Filling out the album's original 37-minute playing time is a 13-minute contemporary interview with Sanders, adding to the political and historical context of this unusual recording.

HAR-YOU Percussion Group: Sounds of the Ghetto Youth Is On Sale at Squidco!